Create an account to track your scores
and create your own practice tests:
Flashcards: Determining Authorial Attitude in Literary Fiction Passages
Adapted from "May Day" in Tales of the Jazz Age by F. Scott Fitzgerald (1922)
At nine o'clock on the morning of the first of May, 1919, a young man spoke to the room clerk at the Biltmore Hotel, asking if Mr. Philip Dean were registered there, and if so, could he be connected with Mr. Dean's rooms. The inquirer was dressed in a well-cut, shabby suit. He was small, slender, and darkly handsome; his eyes were framed above with unusually long eyelashes and below with the blue semicircle of ill health, this latter effect heightened by an unnatural glow which colored his face like a low, incessant fever.
Mr. Dean was staying there. The young man was directed to a telephone at the side.
After a second his connection was made; a sleepy voice hello'd from somewhere above.
"Mr. Dean?"—this very eagerly—"it's Gordon, Phil. It's Gordon Sterrett. I'm down-stairs. I heard you were in New York and I had a hunch you'd be here."
The sleepy voice became gradually enthusiastic. Well, how was Gordy, old boy! Well, he certainly was surprised and tickled! Would Gordy come right up, for Pete's sake!
A few minutes later Philip Dean, dressed in blue silk pajamas, opened his door and the two young men greeted each other with a half-embarrassed exuberance. They were both about twenty-four, Yale graduates of the year before the war; but there the resemblance stopped abruptly. Dean was blond, ruddy, and rugged under his thin pajamas. Everything about him radiated fitness and bodily comfort. He smiled frequently, showing large and prominent teeth.
"I was going to look you up," he cried enthusiastically. "I'm taking a couple of weeks off. If you'll sit down a sec I'll be right with you. Going to take a shower."
As he vanished into the bathroom his visitor's dark eyes roved nervously around the room, resting for a moment on a great English travelling bag in the corner and on a family of thick silk shirts littered on the chairs amid impressive neckties and soft woollen socks.
Gordon rose and, picking up one of the shirts, gave it a minute examination. It was of very heavy silk, yellow, with a pale blue stripe—and there were nearly a dozen of them. He stared involuntarily at his own shirt-cuffs—they were ragged and linty at the edges and soiled to a faint gray. Dropping the silk shirt, he held his coat-sleeves down and worked the frayed shirt-cuffs up till they were out of sight. Then he went to the mirror and looked at himself with listless, unhappy interest. His tie, of former glory, was faded and thumb-creased—it served no longer to hide the jagged buttonholes of his collar. He thought, quite without amusement, that only three years before he had received a scattering vote in the senior elections at college for being the best-dressed man in his class.
The point of view from which the passage is told can best be described as that of __________.
the third person
Mr. Philip Dean
the clerk.
Mr. Gordon Sterrett
the second person
All SSAT Upper Level Reading Resources
Our SSAT Upper Level Reading Comprehension Flashcards each contain one question that might appear on the Upper Level Reading Comprehension section of the SSAT. You can use them to get a comprehensive overview of each topic covered by the SSAT Upper Level Reading Comprehension section one problem at a time, or to do problem drills that focus on particular problem types or content areas found on the SSAT Upper Level Reading Comprehension section.
Reading and comprehending what is written is a very important skill your child needs to learn well to succeed inside and outside of the classroom. If your child is taking the SSAT Upper Level test soon, then they need to prepare well for the Reading section of the test, which will test their reading comprehension rigorously. Varsity Tutors' Learning Tools offers a full suite of SSAT Upper Level Reading study help activities that can be accessed from any computer, tablet, or smartphone.
While other Learning Tools, like the practice tests, are great study materials for your child to use when they have time to sit down and complete them, the SSAT Upper Level Reading Flashcards are perfect for studying when on-the-go or when time is limited. Your child can practice these free flashcards online between classes in school, while riding to and from school and extracurricular activities, or even during commercial breaks of that favorite television show they just can't miss every week!
Unlike the practice tests, the SSAT Upper Level Reading Flashcards don't have timers that determine how long your child takes to answer the questions. While getting in some timed practice is very important, especially when test day is near, if there are topics your child struggles with immensely, then studying the concepts without feeling like they are working “against the clock” can be helpful at first. They can take as long as they need to learn the steps needed to find the right answer without feeling anxious about how long it takes for them to build up this skill. Once they learn to solve the questions they struggle with accurately, they can later work on building up speed during the practice tests.
The SSAT Upper Level Reading review flashcards were created in the same format as the official test, and they each contain a literary passage and a multiple-choice question based on that passage. If you do decide to use the flashcards maker to create additional flashcards for your child to study, they will be most helpful for test preparation if they are also created in this format. When using the flashcards builder, you can also enter the same literary passage on several blank flashcards templates, because each passage on the SSAT will be followed with several questions based on it.
The SSAT Upper Level Reading flashcards have several types of literary passages on them, including humanities, argumentative humanities, narrative humanities, literary fiction, poetry, science, narrative science, social science, and narrative social science passages. The passages on the SSAT will be based on similar topics. Follow-up questions on the flashcards quiz your child on their understanding of authorial attitude, authorial tone, main ideas, and details of the passages. Groups of flashcards also help your child practice determining the meaning of a word based on the context.
The SSAT Upper Level Reading test will contain 40 questions based on a handful of literary passages. Even if your child has great reading skills, don't assume that their reading comprehension skills are at the level they need to be to perform well on the test. Locate the weak areas of your child's reading comprehension skills by having them take a diagnostic exam, and you can then help them build the skills they are weakest in by having them study with the flashcards based on them.
Certified Tutor
Certified Tutor